Fenwick horse Powers
too much for St. Patrick
Powers strikes twice in 3-1 Friars home win
By Gary Larsen
RIVER FOREST -- Fenwick junior Jack Powers is physical and skilled, and after he scored twice in the Friars’ 3-1 win over St. Patrick, Shamrocks coach Kyle McClure added to that description.
“He’s smart, too,” McClure said. “He really put a lot of pressure on our defense. He’s big, strong and fast, but he’s also very smart with his positioning and his runs.”
On one side, Thursday’s nonconference tilt featured a Fenwick team ranked 11th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The Friars went into the game two days removed from a 2-1 loss to sixth-ranked Loyola.
And if Powers played with added smarts against 20th-ranked St. Patrick, it was an intelligence he gained during the defeat to Loyola.
“We were working on possession a lot in practice and that was stuck in my head against Loyola,” Powers said. “Every time I had the ball I was passing it in before taking it in myself. Coach wanted me to take it in myself and then either get a cross or a shot off. So it was in my head to do that all day today.”
That adjustment towards a more aggressive approach paid off for Powers in the 25th minute and shifted the game in Fenwick’s favor. Fenwick (3-1-0) withstood a solid opening 20 minutes of attacking from St. Patrick (6-2-0) before the Friars’ Ryan
Bero sent a ball ahead to Powers in the final third.
From deep on the right side, Powers embraced the knowledge he gained two days prior. He took Bero's feed and two touches before he blistered a shot from a tough angle from 20 yards that tore a path inside the far post and stretched the side netting.
St. Patrick continued to take its attacking turns in a back-and-forth game, but Powers struck again 10 minutes later to sit Fenwick firmly in the driver’s seat. Powers ran down a Narayan Sharma through-ball sent from the middle of the field, beat a final defender, and went in alone on net. Tapping his shot past charging Shamrocks keeper Bryant Alvarez from 12 yards, Powers gave the Friars a 2-0 halftime lead.
“In the Loyola game we were really conservative. We passed well, but we didn’t play many dangerous balls,” Powers said. “We needed to add a couple dangerous balls into the mix, and today we did that.”
The other side of the day’s equation featured a Shamrocks squad playing its fourth game in four days. McClure made no excuses about players with tired legs Thursday, but conceded the reality of the situation.
“We had three games that we should have been able to put the opponent away early, and we did that against the first two (8-1 vs. Joliet Catholic and 9-0 vs. Nazareth),” McClure said. “But yesterday we played awful. We were able to win (3-1) against Marian Central, but we had to leave our (starters) in longer than we wanted to. So we knew it would be tough today.
“Fenwick is a strong team. They’re big, strong and physical. So in our fourth game in four days, that’s just the spot we were in.”
St. Patrick’s Xavier Gamez headed a quality scoring chance off the crossbar at 21 minutes, and the Shamrocks hit another crossbar in the second half. Forward Sebastian Estrada and the St. Patrick attack never stopped fighting but near-misses combined with Fenwick’s ability to capitalize ultimately spelled the difference in the game.
Bero made it 3-0 at 48 minutes, taking a centering feed sent from the left side by Ari Velliotis and firing from 16 yards. The low shot ticked off the hands of a diving Alvarez, then caromed off the post and over the line.
“Today was a positive. I liked the way we played in the attacking half,” Fenwick coach Craig Blazer said. “St. Pat’s had a high line, so we were able to use some of our speed and athleticism. We were adaptive, and we had good defending, with something as simple as not fouling in and around the box and not giving up any penalty kicks to a dangerous team.”
Fenwick keepers Greg Price and Luke McKenna split time in net, and a backline that featured Anders Luthringhausen, Dylan Kupiec, Matty Garcia, and Joey Karris defended well against a dangerous Shamrocks attack.
Blazer also liked what he got from his midfield. “Sharma did well as one of our holding mids, and Diego Salinas played really well in the middle of the field,” Blazer said.
St. Patrick avoided the shutout thanks to Estrada and Conor Day. Estrada crossed a ball from the right side into the box that eventually found the turf, where Day pounced on it and scored at 75 minutes.
“Conor was our first sub off the bench, and I thought he was our best player on the field today,” McClure said. “He played a center mid spot and over the last few games he has really stepped up and played well. I’m glad he got that goal, because he really deserved it.
“He was really smart with his passing and positioning, and he didn’t turn the ball over. We stress not turning the ball over, playing to feet a lot and taking care of the ball, and he just did a great job of that. He worked hard and played physical. He worked his butt off.”
Listed at 5-foot-8 and 135 pounds on the Shamrocks’ roster, Day punched above his weight class all day against Fenwick.
“In the offseason I made it a goal to try to get stronger so I wouldn’t get pushed around,” Day said. “Now I’ve started coming out and hitting people more. When they gave me the opportunity to start playing more I started having more success. I’m just playing harder and working hard to play better with my teammates.”
McClure said the day’s work Day put in Thursday secured the junior a starting spot in Monday’s East Suburban Catholic Conference showdown against 4th-ranked Benet.
McClure was also glad to play Fenwick as the lead-in to Monday’s game.
“This was a good learning game for us because Benet plays very similar to Fenwick,” McClure said. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to play this game before Benet. We know beating Benet is a tall order, and this will prepare us for that. Now we have three days to rest, and we’ll see what happens.
“Fenwick was bigger, stronger, and had a little more horsepower than us today. They just wore us down. It was a good learning experience for us and hopefully we can play better against Benet because of this.”
Fenwick plays at Riverside-Brookfield Friday, then hosts Chicago Catholic League Blue Division rival Mt. Carmel on Monday.
“Loyola’s got a strong program, St. Pat’s as well, and our guys worked hard all summer and fall during a challenging time with COVID,” Blazer said. “We learned a lot from the Loyola game that helped us today in terms of having a game plan and sticking to it. It’s our fourth game, and we’re getting better, getting those valuable minutes under our belts against teams like Loyola and St. Pat’s.”
Starting lineups
Fenwick
GK: Greg Price
D: Anders Luthringhausen
D: Dylan Kupiec
D: Matty Garcia
D: Joey Karris
M: Diego Salinas
M: Jack Powers
M: Jack Lowe
M: Ryan Bero
F: Narayan Sharma
F: Ari Vellilotis
St. Patrick
GK: Bryant Alvarez
D: Xavi Gamez
D: Narcizo Ibarra
D: Benjamin Elvira
MF: Jorge Para
MF: Oracle Vega
MF: Ivan Guerrero
MF: Rafael Rios
MF: Jake Lane
F: Jaden Buelvas
F: Sebastian Estrada
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jack Powers, jr., MF, Fenwick
Scoring summary
First half
Fenwick — Powers (Bero) 25 minutes
Fenwick — Powers (Sharma) 35 minutes
Second half
Fenwick — Bero (Velliotis) 48 minutes
St. Patrick — Day (Estrada) 75 minutes
too much for St. Patrick
Powers strikes twice in 3-1 Friars home win
By Gary Larsen
RIVER FOREST -- Fenwick junior Jack Powers is physical and skilled, and after he scored twice in the Friars’ 3-1 win over St. Patrick, Shamrocks coach Kyle McClure added to that description.
“He’s smart, too,” McClure said. “He really put a lot of pressure on our defense. He’s big, strong and fast, but he’s also very smart with his positioning and his runs.”
On one side, Thursday’s nonconference tilt featured a Fenwick team ranked 11th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The Friars went into the game two days removed from a 2-1 loss to sixth-ranked Loyola.
And if Powers played with added smarts against 20th-ranked St. Patrick, it was an intelligence he gained during the defeat to Loyola.
“We were working on possession a lot in practice and that was stuck in my head against Loyola,” Powers said. “Every time I had the ball I was passing it in before taking it in myself. Coach wanted me to take it in myself and then either get a cross or a shot off. So it was in my head to do that all day today.”
That adjustment towards a more aggressive approach paid off for Powers in the 25th minute and shifted the game in Fenwick’s favor. Fenwick (3-1-0) withstood a solid opening 20 minutes of attacking from St. Patrick (6-2-0) before the Friars’ Ryan
Bero sent a ball ahead to Powers in the final third.
From deep on the right side, Powers embraced the knowledge he gained two days prior. He took Bero's feed and two touches before he blistered a shot from a tough angle from 20 yards that tore a path inside the far post and stretched the side netting.
St. Patrick continued to take its attacking turns in a back-and-forth game, but Powers struck again 10 minutes later to sit Fenwick firmly in the driver’s seat. Powers ran down a Narayan Sharma through-ball sent from the middle of the field, beat a final defender, and went in alone on net. Tapping his shot past charging Shamrocks keeper Bryant Alvarez from 12 yards, Powers gave the Friars a 2-0 halftime lead.
“In the Loyola game we were really conservative. We passed well, but we didn’t play many dangerous balls,” Powers said. “We needed to add a couple dangerous balls into the mix, and today we did that.”
The other side of the day’s equation featured a Shamrocks squad playing its fourth game in four days. McClure made no excuses about players with tired legs Thursday, but conceded the reality of the situation.
“We had three games that we should have been able to put the opponent away early, and we did that against the first two (8-1 vs. Joliet Catholic and 9-0 vs. Nazareth),” McClure said. “But yesterday we played awful. We were able to win (3-1) against Marian Central, but we had to leave our (starters) in longer than we wanted to. So we knew it would be tough today.
“Fenwick is a strong team. They’re big, strong and physical. So in our fourth game in four days, that’s just the spot we were in.”
St. Patrick’s Xavier Gamez headed a quality scoring chance off the crossbar at 21 minutes, and the Shamrocks hit another crossbar in the second half. Forward Sebastian Estrada and the St. Patrick attack never stopped fighting but near-misses combined with Fenwick’s ability to capitalize ultimately spelled the difference in the game.
Bero made it 3-0 at 48 minutes, taking a centering feed sent from the left side by Ari Velliotis and firing from 16 yards. The low shot ticked off the hands of a diving Alvarez, then caromed off the post and over the line.
“Today was a positive. I liked the way we played in the attacking half,” Fenwick coach Craig Blazer said. “St. Pat’s had a high line, so we were able to use some of our speed and athleticism. We were adaptive, and we had good defending, with something as simple as not fouling in and around the box and not giving up any penalty kicks to a dangerous team.”
Fenwick keepers Greg Price and Luke McKenna split time in net, and a backline that featured Anders Luthringhausen, Dylan Kupiec, Matty Garcia, and Joey Karris defended well against a dangerous Shamrocks attack.
Blazer also liked what he got from his midfield. “Sharma did well as one of our holding mids, and Diego Salinas played really well in the middle of the field,” Blazer said.
St. Patrick avoided the shutout thanks to Estrada and Conor Day. Estrada crossed a ball from the right side into the box that eventually found the turf, where Day pounced on it and scored at 75 minutes.
“Conor was our first sub off the bench, and I thought he was our best player on the field today,” McClure said. “He played a center mid spot and over the last few games he has really stepped up and played well. I’m glad he got that goal, because he really deserved it.
“He was really smart with his passing and positioning, and he didn’t turn the ball over. We stress not turning the ball over, playing to feet a lot and taking care of the ball, and he just did a great job of that. He worked hard and played physical. He worked his butt off.”
Listed at 5-foot-8 and 135 pounds on the Shamrocks’ roster, Day punched above his weight class all day against Fenwick.
“In the offseason I made it a goal to try to get stronger so I wouldn’t get pushed around,” Day said. “Now I’ve started coming out and hitting people more. When they gave me the opportunity to start playing more I started having more success. I’m just playing harder and working hard to play better with my teammates.”
McClure said the day’s work Day put in Thursday secured the junior a starting spot in Monday’s East Suburban Catholic Conference showdown against 4th-ranked Benet.
McClure was also glad to play Fenwick as the lead-in to Monday’s game.
“This was a good learning game for us because Benet plays very similar to Fenwick,” McClure said. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to play this game before Benet. We know beating Benet is a tall order, and this will prepare us for that. Now we have three days to rest, and we’ll see what happens.
“Fenwick was bigger, stronger, and had a little more horsepower than us today. They just wore us down. It was a good learning experience for us and hopefully we can play better against Benet because of this.”
Fenwick plays at Riverside-Brookfield Friday, then hosts Chicago Catholic League Blue Division rival Mt. Carmel on Monday.
“Loyola’s got a strong program, St. Pat’s as well, and our guys worked hard all summer and fall during a challenging time with COVID,” Blazer said. “We learned a lot from the Loyola game that helped us today in terms of having a game plan and sticking to it. It’s our fourth game, and we’re getting better, getting those valuable minutes under our belts against teams like Loyola and St. Pat’s.”
Starting lineups
Fenwick
GK: Greg Price
D: Anders Luthringhausen
D: Dylan Kupiec
D: Matty Garcia
D: Joey Karris
M: Diego Salinas
M: Jack Powers
M: Jack Lowe
M: Ryan Bero
F: Narayan Sharma
F: Ari Vellilotis
St. Patrick
GK: Bryant Alvarez
D: Xavi Gamez
D: Narcizo Ibarra
D: Benjamin Elvira
MF: Jorge Para
MF: Oracle Vega
MF: Ivan Guerrero
MF: Rafael Rios
MF: Jake Lane
F: Jaden Buelvas
F: Sebastian Estrada
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jack Powers, jr., MF, Fenwick
Scoring summary
First half
Fenwick — Powers (Bero) 25 minutes
Fenwick — Powers (Sharma) 35 minutes
Second half
Fenwick — Bero (Velliotis) 48 minutes
St. Patrick — Day (Estrada) 75 minutes